


Roses and Rings

by annamvolt



Series: Alexandra Shepard [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 07:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17894294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annamvolt/pseuds/annamvolt
Summary: Alexandra Shepard is planning something big for Valentine’s Day—but when man makes plans, the Universe laughs.





	Roses and Rings

**Author's Note:**

> Super belated Valentine's Day oneshot.

                Three months ago. That was when the thought first came up in Alexandra Shepard’s head.

                She hadn’t seen Miranda in almost a year. For almost a year, Shepard was stranded on Earth, doing work and waiting until the mass relays were fixed, waiting until she got to see her crew, her ship, her girlfriend again.

                When the two women finally reunited, Miranda made Alexandra promise that they would never be apart for so long again.

                Now it was time for Shepard to make good on that promise.

                On February 14, most humans celebrate Valentine’s Day. A rather commercial celebration—Alex would be the first to admit that—but she still thought this was the best occasion to propose.

                She’d planned everything down to the last detail. She wanted this day to be one neither would ever forget; a lovely start to their new life together. Alexandra had never considered herself a romantic—until Miranda.

                The plan was simple, although Shepard had to employ Traynor’s help to carry it through, since there was still Alliance business she had to deal with as soon as the _Normandy_ docked. Sam would make arrangements with the management of Ryuusei—Miranda’s favorite sushi bar that somehow managed to survive both Commander Shepard and the Reapers—so that they’d have the whole place to themselves that evening. A pricey aspiration, for sure, but Alexandra had a lot of savings—and after all, what good was her reputation if she couldn’t even rent out an entire restaurant for herself and her girlfriend-slash-hopefully-future-wife?

                Sam would also pick up the flowers—a bouquet of thirty red roses, for love, and a single white one in the middle, for marriage—and the engagement rings Alexandra had specially ordered. Later that evening, after Alexandra was done with her duties and all dressed up, she’d meet Miranda for dinner. She’d give her the flowers, they’d dine, they’d have a glass of good wine, and after dessert Alexandra would get out the ring and pop the question.

                It was truly a great plan, if she could say so herself.

                The day started off according to schedule. The _Normandy_ docked nice and easy and most of the crew were dismissed for the day.

                Alexandra couldn’t even begin to imagine the obstacles life was going to throw at her on this most important of days.

                First she had to deal with incompetent employees, bureaucracy and huge waiting lines on the Citadel. Everything from the identification checks at the docking bay to the rapid transit to the bureaucratic wrangling at Alliance HQ was so painstakingly slow that Alexandra was starting to feel claustrophobic.

                 Increasingly irritated by the second, she checked the time on her omnitool so often that her arm was becoming tired. _17:30, 18:00, 18:05, 18:09, 18:16_. Her date was at 19:00 sharp and she still had to meet Traynor at her apartment, shower _and_ change before meeting Miranda.

                _If_ _I’m not done with this shit by 18:30, I’m Charging into every idiot in this office_ , she decided, fingers impatiently tapping against her artificial leg.

                At 18:39 and just when she finally managed to get the requisitions for the _Normandy_ in order, she received a call on her omnitool. She answered, ready to apologize to Samantha for standing her up, while hoping that Vigil had at least let the girl into the apartment—but Sam was quicker.

                “Commander, I’m so sorry—”

                “What is it, Sam?” Alexandra inquired, feeling a knot form in her stomach.

                “I’m still at the mall,” the young woman started apologetically, “I’ve got the flowers and the rings but I’ve been stuck in the elevator for half an hour now.”

                “How? Are you okay? Did you call for someone?”

                “It must be some sort of VI malfunction. Apparently it’s all the elevators in the building. They’re supposedly trying to fix the issue, but they can’t get the doors to open. I don’t know how long it’s going to take them. I’m so sorry, Shepard, I just don’t think I can make it in time.”

                Shepard sighed as she headed to the rapid transit station.

                “Don’t worry about it, Sam. I’m sorry you’re spending your time off stuck in an elevator because of me.”

                “Don’t mention it, Commander. I’ll meet you back at the _Normandy_ later. I hope you still have a good time at your date.”

                Alexandra hoped that as well. There was no time to return to Tiberius Towers and get changed; the line at the rapid transit was so long she was going to be late to her date as it was. It may come as a surprise, but when it came to lines, not as many people gave up their spots to the Savior of the Galaxy as you’d think.

                Ungrateful.

                 She rushed into Ryuusei with sweat trickling down her forehead. She spotted Miranda immediately, seated at a table in the middle of the restaurant. The woman looked absolutely gorgeous; her luscious black hair was curled, her lips were painted scarlet and she was wearing a black velvet dress with thin straps that revealed her collarbones and showcased her beautiful figure.

                A heavy contrast to Shepard, who was sweaty, still in uniform, with frizzy honey blonde curls and smudged eyeliner around her eyes.

                Despite that, Miranda still smiled at the sight of her girlfriend and leant in for a quick kiss over the table as Alex took a seat across her.

                “I’m so sorry, Miri,” Alexandra said. “I wasn’t expecting to be held up so long.” Neither did she expect Traynor getting stuck in an elevator along with the flowers and engagement rings.

                “Don’t worry about it, Al. You’re here now. Shall we order?”

                An asari waitress dressed in a tux approached and took their order. While they waited for their appetizers and drinks, Miranda laid a small present on the table.

                “I know you don’t really like Valentine’s Day,” she began, and Alexandra’s throat dried up, “but I really wanted to get you something. Happy Valentine’s Day, Al.”

                Alex unwrapped the present and opened the little box. She couldn’t help a smirk when she realized what she was looking at.

                “A thousand credit gift card for Kassa Fabrication,” she chuckled. 

                “I didn’t think you’d appreciate a teddy bear that says ‘I love you’ in twenty galactic languages as much,” Miranda joked.

                “You know me well. Thank you.” Alexandra paused as the waitress returned with their appetizers and wine. She uncorked the bottle and poured each of the women a glass before walking away. “I—I feel bad though. I didn’t manage to get you something.”

                Miranda laughed heartily as she picked up her glass and swirled the blood red wine around. “You got me this, Alex,” she disagreed, gesturing to the empty restaurant with her other hand.

                They were almost finished with the appetizers and Alexandra was just starting to forget the earlier unfortunate events, when the romantic background music came to a sudden stop and the entire restaurant went dark.

                Alexandra sighed deeply. A power outage. Just her luck.

                “Ouch.” Somebody bumped into a table nearby. It was the asari waitress, who slowly made her way to Shepard and Miranda led by the sole light in the room—the candle on their table. “Ladies, we’re so sorry. Unexpected power outage on the entire block.”

                “No backup generator?” Shepard tried, unable to hide the exasperation in her voice as well as she would’ve liked.

                “Unfortunately, it seems like our generator got fried, too,” the waitress explained. “The management apologizes for the inconvenience, Commander Shepard, and wants me to inform you that your… dinner—” Alexandra could hear the air quotes, “is on them. We also hope you’ll be returning to Ryuusei for the complete experience.”

                She might consider that when her streak of bad luck was over.

                “It’s okay,” Alexandra said instead. She brought up her omnitool, squinting at the sudden bright orange glow in the darkness and paid for the reservation anyway before she and Miranda left the restaurant.

                “That was unfortunate,” Miranda noted on the way out.

                “It just doesn’t seem to be my day today,” Shepard shrugged.

                If there was any doubt that somebody had put the evil eye on Alexandra Shepard, it vanished when she got a call from Ashley minutes later, saying that Admiral Hackett wanted the entire crew back on the _Normandy_ ASAP.

                _So much for romance_ , Alexandra thought as she and Miranda made their way to the docking bay.

               

\--

 

                There was a knock on her cabin’s door.

                “Come in.”

                The door slid open and Ashley Williams strode in. Shepard was sitting at her desk, reading the report Hackett sent her regarding the mission he wanted the _Normandy_ urgently off the Citadel for.

                “Samantha told me what happened,” Ashley cut to the chase. She was the only one save Traynor who knew about Alexandra’s plan.

                Alex glanced at the small velvet box and the bouquet sadly lying on her desk.

                “What can you do,” she shrugged nonchalantly, eyes returning to the datapad in her hands.

                “Shepard.”

                “You know, I really wanted this day to be perfect,” Alexandra admitted defeatedly, putting the datapad down before she got up. “Candlelit dinner, flowers, music, the whole nine yards—it would’ve been so romantic.”

                 “Alex. You love Lawson. And she clearly loves you. You can’t get any more romantic than that,” Williams said earnestly.

                Ashley approached the desk and took the rings out of the box. Alexandra watched quizzically as her friend carefully picked up the bouquet and proceeded to place the rings in-between the petals of the white rose.

                Then she walked up to Shepard and shoved the bouquet in her chest. “Get out there and propose to her.”

                Alexandra’s eyebrows furrowed. “Are you crazy? In front of the whole crew? No way.”

                “Shepard, if you don’t go out there right now and ask the woman of your life to marry you, I’m gonna kick you out the airlock myself. Ma’am.”

                Holding tightly onto the flowers, Alexandra gave her friend a bright smile.

                “Thanks, Ash.”

                “That’s what friends are for, isn’t it?”

                Alexandra headed into the CIC with determination, even though her palms were sweating profusely and her knees felt like jelly. Ashley kept beside her like a proud father walking his only daughter down the aisle.

                Every single person on the deck froze in their tracks. There were some whispers amongst the crew and grins from ear to ear as far as the eye could see.

                Miranda was in the cockpit, showing Joker something on a datapad. She only turned when she heard footsteps heading towards the bridge.

                The expression on Miranda’s face was a sight Alexandra never wanted to forget; an amalgam of confusion, surprise and utter joy. Alexandra felt the urge to kiss that dumbfounded smile that was painted across Miranda’s lips.

                Alex handed her the flowers and Miranda took them with trembling hands.

                “What the hell are you doing, Shepard?” she mouthed, eyes darting to the spectators staring from all over the bridge and CIC.

                “Miranda Lawson,” Alexandra started, hoping that the unsteadiness in her voice wasn’t too obvious as she got down on her good knee, “will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

                Miranda made a faint sound, the sweetest little gasp Alexandra had ever heard, as she noticed the pair of engagements rings tucked inside the petals of the single white rose in the bunch. Her striking blue eyes met Alexandra’s and, for a split second, nothing else mattered.

                “Alexandra, I—” Miranda stumbled over her own words, cheeks blushing, “Of course I will be your wife.”

                The entire crew of the SSV _Normandy_ SR-2 broke into applause. Shepard noticed an orange glow from behind her as she slipped Miranda’s ring on her finger. Somebody was taking holos—Traynor, most probably, already collecting material for the inevitable holo album she would be gifting them. Miranda slid the second ring on Alexandra’s finger, softly caressing the soldier’s calloused hands. Joker whistled enthusiastically from the helm.

                “Alright, alright, let’s get back to work now,” Alexandra called out, still smirking.

                As the crew scattered, Alex and Miranda grasped the opportunity to share a hasty kiss.

                “So, um, is it too much to hope for a bachelorette party with asari dancers?” Joker interrupted them from his seat.

                Alexandra pulled back from the kiss and shot him a death glare.

                “Jeff, it’s too much to hope for an _invitation_ to the party,” Miranda retorted with a mischievous grin.

                “Damn it, Lawson. Well, it was worth a shot,” Joker lamented as the newly engaged couple walked away laughing.

                “Happy Valentine’s Day, babe,” Alexandra said quietly once the laughter had faded.

                “Happy Valentine’s Day, Al.”            

           


End file.
